Accidents caused by kerosene lamps: New evidence from African household data

Luciane Lenz, Laura Montenbruck and Maximiliane Sievert

No 679, Ruhr Economic Papers from RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen

Abstract: The use of kerosene for lighting, cooking, and heating in developing countries is often considered a major health threat as it can cause accidents like thermal injuries, poisonings, fires or explosions. A number of hospital surveys emphasize this threat but evidence from household data is extremely scarce and mostly outdated. The present paper is one of the first to investigate the link between kerosene-based lighting and accidents at the household level. We use survey data from 3,326 non-electrified households in Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Senegal, and Zambia and observe very heterogeneous kerosene lamp usage rates. In some regions, accidents with kerosene lamps occur in a substantial share of the population, but the absolute incidence is rather low.

Keywords: burns; thermal injury; kerosene lamp; traditional lighting; Sub-Sahara Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I15 K32 O13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-dev
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:rwirep:679

DOI: 10.4419/86788787

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